Wednesday, March 31, 2010

I don't know about where you are... but around here it is so sunny and pretty and warm this week- even if you are NOT "smarter than the average bear" you will be grabbing yourself a "pic-a-nic" basket and heading somewhere outdoors!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Like:
Can I vacuum this house in less than 12 minutes?
Can I make it until noon without an M&M?
Can I run one more errand before I get in the car pool line?

When this little blog started gaining in readership I set a little goal for myself. Could I get as many followers as the almighty - my humor idol - Jan Tink?

Oh, I know I'll never have as many readers, she has a bazillion people with email subscriptions but her "follower" list looked achievable and TA DAH! Today, I got the 193rd person brave enough to publicly say that they read this stuff - which for TODAY - ties me with the FAMOUS and so wonderful Jan Tink.

I'll be grinning all day long!

Thanks for coming by ladies and thanks for "following" - you make me smile!
And it is 11:03 am and I haven't had an M&M yet...

OK, someone asked me for a cow but I can't find the email - maybe it was in a comment. I'm thinking this isn't exactly what they had in mind but this is what the Inspiration Fairy did.

Well, it was the Inspiration Fairy AND Eileen the glitter guru....

I handed Eileen the cow to get a little shine on the black hoofs and the little spotted beast came back with shiny feet AND fake eyelashes. So then I had to add the jewelry. You can "un-glam" her if you need a basic cow. But I think she is just FAB like this!

sorry for the blur - I guess I need practice with my camera for close-ups

Monday, March 29, 2010

I couldn't decide on a name for this little miss - Polly Pencil? Suzy Student? Testing Tessa? What do you think? Any ideas out there?

This little punch art reminded me of my oldest (college girl now) when she learned to print (but longed to learn cursive). She would fill page after page of paper with her name, address, phone number, and lists of her favorite movies. She would fill pages and the next time would start over with those basic facts and alphabetize the movies again. I'm was never sure what her motivation was (I need to ask her now) but she entertained herself for long stretches of time and developed beautiful handwriting. Of course I kept one but didn't take a picture of her doing this. I'll remake "red" here to a brunette and add some glasses and this will replace the missing photo when I scrap this story.

Since I came to scrapping later in life and since digital photography didn't exist for much of my life (or my children's lives), there are many tales I want to tell but no photographs to match the story.

One great solution is to journal the story and just include another photo of your subject. For example, you want to tell about Grandma's housekeeping quirks but you certainly don't have a photo of her cleaning. You just tell the story, and add any picture you have of Grandma.

My friend Virginia, who is my volunteer assistant when I teach card classes at the local woman's club, just started a 6x6 recipe collection and she has a picture of Granddad on his salad recipe - it is perfect!

What story do you NEED to tell that doesn't have a photo? Even if you aren't a scrapbooker, think of one and go write it down in a spiral notebook. Someone will treasure it when you are old and too crazy to remember - and based on my brain lately that could be sooner than you think!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

In my opinion, nothing is finer than eating out and being waited on. (remember me? Ellen = Ms. Hates to Cook)

One of my best buddies, JoAnn, (we go all the way back to high school) thinks WINE is one of the finer things in life. She has a group of friends in Houston that take turns hosting wine tastings. They have a theme each time and prizes. You can win for the best bottle of wine OR for best decoration of the bottle (to fit the theme) Isn't that a hoot? They have a ball.

I went to dinner with a few of these friends when I was last in Houston - they were analyzing the flavors in the wine and I guess JoAnn didn't want me to feel left out so after saying she tasted "blah, blah and blah" she asked what I could taste. Pausing for effect, I just had to quip "I am almost certain that I taste GRAPES in this" They did smile but I'm not sure they appreciated my humor - yet that was all I had to contribute. I am more of a beer drinker and have no training in appreciating the subtle flavors in a wine. But I can sure appreciate that they picked a GREAT bottle with dinner.

I decided to combine these two FINE THINGS for a punch art character.

WINE WAITERI know that isn't the correct terminology but I wanted alliteration (another of my quirks)

Did you know SU has ONE color name without alliteration? Basic Gray - grates on my nerves every time I have to say/type it. Couldn't they have named it Gravel Gray? or Basic Blah? It is a good color that I use frequently but it needs to be renamed!

Back to punch art...
I originally had his legs much longer and his arm stuck way out in front of him - but he didn't fit on a standard card front that way - so I operated on him (no anesthesia - poor fella) making him into the short yet distinguished chap he is today.

Shirt and pants - 1.75 circles
Jacket - wide ovals
Sleeves - word windows
Bow tie - small heart to heart
Legs - oval ring - large oval around small oval hole
Feet - 3/4 inch circle
Head - 1.75 trimmed straight on two sides
Nose - word window (thought about using the Two Step Bird wing but he needed a more refined nose)
Ear - scrap laying on the desk - use anything since his hair covers almost all of it
Hair - scallop oval repunched to make smaller
Eye - standard hole punch, 1/2 small heart to heart - don't forget the highlight with white gel pen - it makes a difference
Hands - modern label repunched with 1/2 inch circle
Tray - word window
Wine bottle - word window trimmed flat, thin strip for bottle neck, piece of word window for label, put crystal effects on bottle
He has a LOT of face showing some I have him pink cheeks with some pastel/chalk

Links to Finer Things
My buddy, Carolyn Sharkas (Dano), has a beautiful flower on her blog this weekend using the Two Step Bird punch. See? It can be used for more than just birds or big noses on silly faces!

She got the directions from Ann's Creative Moments - read down a few more posts on Ann's blog to see other beautiful things from the same punch. This blogger has seriously gorgeous things (not like my cartoonish style)

Friday, March 26, 2010

I found another puncher/blogger that wants a challenge. Several of you have made requests of me and I have either failed miserably or not gotten around to your project (yet). So check out this clever puncher and see if she can help you out. Ryn Scraps

She has done several things I've never tried - and her version of Marvin the Martian is super cute!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Nancy Dawson, who has known me for a while from a scrapbooking yahoo group, just found my blog while on a search for a punch art goat. Well, of course, I had to help a fellow scrapbooker...

This has a 'mountain goat' feel - but I think separating the legs and shortening the horns will make him a 'normal' goat if that is what you need. But, what do I know? My goat experience is limited to reading Three Billy Goats Gruff and the local petting zoos and as my baby is driving - both of those experiences were YEARS ago.

You might have noticed that Eileen, glitter guru, glammed the goat.

You can probably see most of it and I feel like I am constantly repeating the same stuff when I give punch lists - so here is just the critical info:

head is half a butterfly,
all facial hair is from the scallop oval repunched with ovals.
body is 1.75 circle with two cuts - one to flatten his back and a diagonal cut near his neck,
feet are modern label trimmed to just two 'bumps'

Jenifer (my up-line) needed a birthday card for her motorcycle riding boss but was running short of time, so she sent me a darling cartoon picture which I quickly altered/copied and this is the result...

Yes, yes, yes - I was her favorite down-line that day.

No, no, no - I am not giving you a list of punches - I'm feeling lazy.

I will point out:

The oval for the eyes is NOT SU - it is from my old stash of punches - but you could certainly use circles

The curved handles are the branch from the Two Step Bird with all but the end leaf cut off.

All the large circles are the 1.25 inch circle.

You can figure out the rest - you really can!

Here is Jenifer's finished card:

Too Fun!

She wanted me to "sign" the punch art, so those are my initials in the head light - I felt a little stupid doing that but it also felt great that she asked me to. It was like real ART not just playing with paper scraps.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Today's punch art is the result of a request from Krista Hood for her niece.

This brought back many memories since my girls watched the big purple dinosaur over and over and over and over (and over and under and sideways) until I thought I'd NEVER get his songs out of my head. He originated here in North Texas so we 'discovered' him and watched his videos (constantly) long before he made it onto TV.

I am so sorry if you have an annoying tune playing in an endless loop in your brain now. I purposely didn't mention ANY lyrics or names since I don't want to be responsible for initiating musical pain & suffering - I REALLY hope not to hum songs from "B" all day.

Monday, March 22, 2010

We have so many family jokes about misheard lyrics. Hubby is particularly funny with his ridiculous 'hearings' and my girls are notoriously stubborn, insisting that their versions of songs are correct - even when they don't make sense.

But nothing beats the story that goes with today's punch art. I got a request back in January from Tina Rappe because her daughter misheard the lyrics to a popular Christmas carol.

Tina said, "When my daughter was four (she's nearly 17 now) she would sing songs constantly using her version of the words. One of my favorite songs that she'd dance around the house singing was "Deck the Halls". It was a sweet four year old version of the beloved Christmas carol. The funny part is the words she used...as the song went along instead of singing "Don we now our gay apparel", my daughter would loudly proclaim "Don we call our gay old pharaoh!"

So Ellen, my request to you is....can you make some punch art to depict "Our gay old pharaoh named Don"? I have been thinking for years how much I would love to put this on the front of our Christmas cards with the explanation of where it came from."

Isn't that hysterical? I'll never be able to hear that Christmas carol without picturing a gay old pharaoh and you may have the same issue after you see this

Don, the Gay Old Pharaoh(I think Don donned his gay apparel)

If that eyeshadow doesn't make you smile, you need an adjustment to your sense of humor!

I had given him blue eyelids but when Eileen was fulfilling my request for glitter on his neck piece and sandals she glammed him up further. I told you she has a gift for glitz!

Not sure Tina will want to mass produce this (lots of steps) - but she could make it, take a photo and use THAT on Christmas cards.

I really thought this would be a one time project and that no one but Tina would ever use this. But within 24 hours Jenifer was doing a museum layout and she used the pharaoh without all the "glam". So, maybe you can use it today for a good chuckle and again on a layout or card someday in the future.

Here is a picture of part of Jenifer's page using the pharaoh - still shiny but not quite as "out there"

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Oh my gosh - we had the most fantastical amaze-a-lazy time this weekend. We went to a friend of my up-line's lake house in East Texas for FREE (always a great price) and had so much fun!

Jenifer and Becky scrapped their little hearts out. Both DOUBLED their goals in number of pages completed and they did some fabulous pages! And yes, they did follow my "Get a Ton Done" advice and it worked for them. Whew, I was gonna feel really bad if I had given bad advice.

Eileen colored images and glittered and did "finishing touches" on our projects (her special talent is adding that perfect touch of glitz). But most importantly Eileen COOKED. Oh my gawd did we eat well!!! - we planned on staying in our pj's on Saturday and I was so glad because there was more room with the elastic waist pj's than in my jeans!

Awesome food and we found an awesome radio station out there in the boonies for our background music. We had PERFECT weather for our departure on Friday morning - rain on Saturday (perfect for staying in and scrapping) - and SNOW on Sunday for our trip home. Packing up the vehicles in blowing snow was NOT perfect, but the roads were just wet and it was beautiful so I can't even complain about that.

I got so much punching done! That is right punch fans, I did not scrapbook - I did punch art ALL weekend (when I wasn't playing cards or drinking margaritas) - I have TONS of cute stuff to show you over the next few weeks.

Here is where they worked -

And here is where I worked...

Creativity sometimes requires a mess!

I'll show you a new project tomorrow. It fulfills a request I received and was voted "favorite punch art "of the weekend.

Friday, March 19, 2010

I will be away on a "girls" trip for a couple of days - no Internet service available, so comment or email and then be patient - I'll get back with you as soon as I can. I have scheduled a couple of posts for you while I'm gone.

For today, a summary to help you find people and 'people-ish' characters without wading through the whole blog.

Divided into Male, Female, and Babies.
Enjoy!

This post will be kept current as I add new people and human-ish characters. If you find a bad link please let me know. Thanks, Ellen.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

So punch fans, this is one I have wanted to make for a long time - I am surprised it has not been requested. And this is as close to an Easter chick as I'm coming.

I decided the correct label for my malady is not Springtime Scrooge. I'm ready for spring weather (and Spring Break!) I'm just not "hopping down the bunny trail" this year, so using the correct terminology - my title would be: Ellen, Easter Ebeneezer.

Here is the 'how to' photo and punch info for this little tweety pie:

Head - 1.75 circle

Body & Tail - large oval trimmed as shown in photo - save trimmed out part as tail

Arms - oval ring from large oval punched around small oval hole

Cheeks - small oval snipped in a little (snip isn't shown in the above photo - look at the card)

Beak - tip of small oval

White of eye - word window

blue of eye - part of small heart to heart - see photo for part to cut off

feet - full heart - trim out "pie" shape as shown in photo

Go around the edges of each piece with a black marker. Draw on eye blacks, eyelashes, eyebrows and toe line.

Spring Break is upon us here in North Texas, so this coming week my posts may be spotty - College girl will be home at least part of the week and hubby gets home from Paris today so I may not have much desk time.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Everywhere you look you see Easter stuff. Baskets and chicks and bunnies and lambs - Spring is in the Air - blah blah blah...

I must be the Springtime Scrooge because I'm just not feeling it. I guess when your kids grow up the bunny stuff loses its fun.

Besides not being into the Easter Bunny thing this year - I am also NOT into pastel colors. I rarely do purple and if I do pink it is probably with brown or black. Except for baby themes, I don't craft with pastel colors. I don't wear them. I don't decorate my house with them. Not my thing.

But in honor of Easter, I did make a bunny for you - please consider this an Ellenized Easter Bunny because it is the only bunny I'm "into" right now.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

I was worried that you might be suffering without your daily punch fix.

I decided to give you a tiny punch idea to hold you thru the layout share until punching returns tomorrow.

You would have to suffer without this if I hadn't had a happy accident this morning.

Happy accident doesn't mean I crashed into a car full of clowns, it means I spied a shape amongst my punch droppings (sounds disgusting, huh?)

I was punching away - struggling, trying every combination of odd things to create a piece of a character when I stumbled on a shape I think you will like.

Lips!

I know we have passed Valentines, but you can always leave a love note for your kids or sweet thing can't you?

Problem: If you don't LOVE punches you might not have the curly label punch. But if you don't love punches, why would you keep reading this blog? - so never-mind, I'm sure you can all make these lips today.

I used the HOLE from the curly label then punched a 1 inch circle around the hole. 1.25 circle looks good too - you get a little wider mouth. You can get fuller lips by pushing your punch 'in' further.

Easy! And you never know when you might need to leave a little kiss.

Now go make something cute with lips on it - and come back tomorrow for a new punch project.

I am loving Scrapping the Art's challenges. For one, they are fun. Two, they are challenging to me. And three, I am giving myself a tiny bit of art education when I research the featured piece.

The current challenge inspiration at Scrap the Art is Daybreak by Joan Miro - a Spanish artist. I suspect most of the entries will be inspired by the colors - how could they not be? I followed the links to the first few entries - They are WOW cards! Wow Wow Wow.

I will, however, stick to trying to use the art to inspire my scrapbooking. (Sorry punch fans - but you can't have copied EVERYTHING I've shown you - you can live without a punch project today.)

Here's what I came up with:

The yellow in the inspiration piece made me immediately think of this photo from the stage of the NBA All Star game last month. The burst of light around Usher as he takes the stage is even a little reminiscent of the star-burst in the art piece. I also used the colors, the thin black lines, a diagonal feature and the black dots. I decided there was enough red in the photos and that red paper would be distracting from the story I was telling so I didn't add any.

Don't get all jealous - these photos look like we had FANTABULOUS seats - and while our seats were good they weren't on the floor. These photos are courtesy of Jerry Jone's SIXTY YARD WIDE BIG SCREEN in his fantabulous new football stadium. I mean that baby is HUGE.

(Fantabulous = fantastic plus fabulous)

The journaling is in black on the blue paper - hard to read in the photo so here it is if you're interested:

The NBA All-Star game was in town this year – on Valentine’s Day. Randy and Scott decided it was the place to be, so they made it a ‘couples’ evening instead of inviting some of the guys to go with them to the game.

While neither Jan nor I would have picked a basketball game as our Valentine’s entertainment, we had a REALLY fun time- dinner at Mariano’s, of course, and then the game.

All I knew going in were the names of a few of the players that no doubt would be there – and which Mavericks had made the All Star team. No clue about anything else that would go on.

I was thrilled when Usher was the opening entertainment. While I am too old and uptight to “approve” of some of his song lyrics, I am not DEAD. This guy is young and Hot and talented and Hot and energetic and Hot.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I have lost track of all the emails requesting a punched wrestler. I know there have been at least four and I didn't offer these ladies much hope - I really didn't expect to ever figure this one out.

I understand the need for wrestling items. College girl went to her high school homecoming with a wrestler during her Senior year - and down here, in the 'Land of Football', homecoming mums for the girls are the size of basketballs and are approximately the same weight as a large dictionary - personalized with names of the couple and their activities. The boys wear normal size mums on garters on their arms but they still have to have lots of ribbons and 'stuff' dangling down.

I had to create a mum for this kid (a wrestler) and searched high and low for wrestling items to put on it. Wound up focusing on his other interests because marketers have not yet realized the needs of those who love high school wrestlers.

This probably won't help you with your football floral needs, but might help you with scrapbooks and cards...

These parts are almost the same as Spider-man:
Body - full heart with wide oval at shoulders
Arms - large oval, small ovals
Hands - modern label shortened by small oval - slot thumbs
Legs - large oval, small oval
Boot - Full heart trimmed (heck, I cut so much you might as well just free hand them)

Changes to make him a wrestler:
I switched the upper arms to small ovals (high school - not quite as MANLY yet)
made the boots shorter
gave him a shirt - wide oval punched with small oval for neck and arm holes
gave him shorts - large oval trimmed over the flesh colored large oval
gave him - two slot thumbs with fist position (no need for spider webs coming out)
gave him - Stefen Brock (male demo) head(Stefan didn't know what he started when he sent me that photo and request)